If you went into a winter hibernation Sunday afternoon and didn't wake up until Monday morning, you might not have been too surprised to find out that the Vikings and Wild had both won.
You would have been gobsmacked to learn, however, that they both won by the same 3-0 score. (You also would have been pleased to have slept through the three hours you could have devoted to watching an utterly dreadful Vikings game).
Indeed, unless you are a fan of pretty good defense (compared to completely inept offense) or couldn't stay away from the train wreck — as Patrick Reusse said he could not on Monday's Daily Delivery podcast — there wasn't much to like from the Vikings aside from the basic outcome.
As bad as it was to watch, please take a moment to give some sympathy to Kevin Kugler and Mark Sanchez, the Fox announcing team that had the unenviable task of trying to dress up what was for 58 minutes of game time and three hours of a real-time scoreless snooze-fest.
They tried to give Vikings starting QB Joshua Dobbs and Raiders QB Aidan O'Connell the benefit of the doubt. They asserted truths like, "Both defenses have played well. They've tackled well," as Kugler said midway through the fourth quarter of a still scoreless game.
But they also seemed desperate for something or someone — anything, anyone — to latch onto as a true positive.
Vikings backup quarterback Nick Mullens, with a very basic competence that looked like Pro Bowl QB play by comparison Sunday, became not just the hero the purple faithful wanted but also the hero Kugler and Sanchez desperately needed.
"A slightly low throw, but an excellent read," Sanchez said of Mullens' first throw, a 26-yard completion to T.J. Hockenson down the middle of the field that was deflected by a Raiders defender.